Field devices that are used in industrial installations are already known from the prior art. In automation technology—in particular, in process automation and in manufacturing automation technology—field devices are used frequently. In principle, the term, “field device,” refers to all devices that are process-oriented and that process or supply process-relevant information. Field devices are thus used for detecting and/or influencing process variables. Measuring devices, or sensors, are used for detecting process variables. These measuring devices are used, for example, for pressure and temperature measurement, conductivity measurement, pH measurement, flow measurement, fill-level measurement, etc., and detect the corresponding process variables of pressure, temperature, conductivity, pH value, fill-level, flow, etc. Actuators are used to influence process variables. These actuators are, for example, pumps or valves that can influence the flow of a fluid in a pipe or the fill-level in a tank. In addition to the aforementioned measuring devices and actuators, field devices are also understood to include remote I/O's, radio adapters, or, generally, devices that are arranged at the field level.
A variety of such field devices is produced and marketed by the Endress+Hauser group.
Field devices that are integrated into a new application of a process plant or replacement field devices that replace an obsolete or defective field device of an application must be adapted specifically to the respective application. To this end, these field devices are configured and parameterized during or after manufacturing. The configuration describes, on the one hand, the configuration on the hardware side, e.g., the flange material of a flow measuring device, as well as the configuration on the software side. The term, “parameterization,” is understood to mean the defining and specifying of parameters, with the aid of which the operation of the field device is set to the respective features of the application—for example, the measured medium.
From the factory, all field devices of the same device type and/or of the same configuration have the same number of parameters and the same preset standard parameter set. The specific adaptation of individual parameters is extremely complex and associated with a high manual effort as a result of the sometimes high number of parameters—often up to several hundred different parameters. For the customer, a specific adaptation of the parameters is therefore frequently not practicable.
Many parameters are, moreover, dependent upon each other, so that a single parameter change by an inexperienced customer can sometimes result in a functional impairment of the field device.